Abstract
Permafrost has been thawing faster due to climate change which would release greenhouse gases, change the hydrological regimes, affect buildings above, and so on. It is necessary to study the thawing process of frozen soil. A water-heat coupling model for frozen soil thawing is established on Darcy’s law and Heat Transfer in Porous Media interfaces in Comsol Multiphysics 5.5. Three curves of total liquid water volume, minimum temperature, and total heat flux in the thawing process are obtained from a numerical simulation. The distributions of liquid water, temperature, and pressure based on time are simulated too. The liquid water distribution is consistent with the total liquid water volume curve. The temperature distribution is confirmed by the minimum temperature and total heat flux curve. The pressure distribution represents ice in the frozen soil that generates negative pressure during the melting process. The numerical simulation research in this article deepens the understanding of the internal evolution in the process of frozen soil thawing and has a certain reference value for subsequent experimental research and related applications.
Highlights
There are large areas of permafrost in boreal and highelevation regions such as Qinghai-Tibet Plateau [1]
Because it is difficult to observe the internal evolution of frozen soil during the thawing process, numerical simulation is the approach which is chosen to study the variations of water, temperature, heat, and pressure in the process
With the melting of ice, the changes of various physical indicators in the channel can reflect the internal evolution of the thawing process in frozen soil, which is worthy of further discussion
Summary
There are large areas of permafrost in boreal and highelevation regions such as Qinghai-Tibet Plateau [1]. Soil under freezing and thawing conditions is the key point for studying the impact of climate change on boreal and highelevation regions [17]. Han et al [26] studied the effect of freeze-thaw cycles on the shear strength of saline soil. Some scholars studied the shear behavior of frozen soil-concrete interface under freezing and thawing conditions [32, 33]. Grenier et al [42] studied groundwater flow and heat transport for systems undergoing freeze-thaw He et al [43] proposed a coupled heat-moisture-deformation model for saturated frozen soils. Because it is difficult to observe the internal evolution of frozen soil during the thawing process, numerical simulation is the approach which is chosen to study the variations of water, temperature, heat, and pressure in the process. The research conclusion has a certain reference value for the subsequent experimental research and related applications
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